My Hijama Course experience - A testimonial from a Hijama student of ICAHT

The following is a testimonial by Arif Malik on the Hijama Diploma course by ICAHT - The Institute of Clinically Applied Hijama Therapy

My name is Arif and I am currently doing the Institute of Clinically applied Hijama Therapy (ICAHT) Hijama course. I have just completed month 4 of the diploma and inshallah have 2 months left on the course.

I thought it would be good to write down my own observations and personal experiences of my journey on the Course.I will be open and honest.

My journey I guess began about a year ago.I sort of stumbled into the Ruqyah profession...that’s another long story!!! Anyway I began to read a bit about hijama via some of the web pages that I had come across and thought this would be good to do as well ...It kind of went hand in hand with the Ruqyah I guess.

I have had hijama done myself, twice before a years ago. I remember I did it with the imam of the local mosque and some brother from Libya who had a blade in his hand and an empty plastic jug with cotton wool in it in the other. We sat on the mosque floor ...the rest is a memory.

Anyway back to the journey...I was introduced to ICAHT by a sister who was looking to do hijama, she had been a qualified nurse for 20 years and she wanted to get into something that would benefit people. She said she had researched the course and that it would take 6 months to obtain a diploma.

I thought great! It must be very good and quite intense if its 6 months. So I did my own research and thought you know what the course sounds good. I like the structure of the classroom learning, self learning, case studies and clinical sessions. Looks and sounds very professional and for me it was the fact that it was being run by highly qualified staff .i.e. doctors who knew what they were talking about.  In my mind this was the deal clincher.

So I registered and then went to Leicester for the first portion of the course which involved live lectures and classroom leaning at Leicester University. I attended and there were a mixture of people, most of them were from the medical field, nurses or health and beauty centres and a few doctors and dentists thrown in...Hmm I thought ...this is going to be intense as I do not come from a medical background at all in fact I was in the law profession for 20 years.

The initial few days of lectures was intense there was a lot of front loading sessions ...the practical of the Hijama i.e. the dry cupping was the good part. I enjoyed that bit and having the wet cupping done by other students was interesting too. I guess it depends on the confidence and ability of the other students. I was lucky I had a doctor practise on me and me on him. I think I was lucky ..well he did cut deep and slow...lol, However this was all under the supervision of the teachers and experienced doctors so all within acceptable limits.

So I completed the lectures and felt there was a lot of information to be digested especially as I was from a non medical background. So the next part was the self study section, we were sent assignments and video lectures every month and we had to complete them and send them back. This was ok in some parts, namely various topics each month explaining certain medical aspects to try and understand how it relates to the hijama that we would be doing later on.

My own feedback in relation to this was that I would have liked to have seen the learning objectives for the assignments. I felt at times I did not know how much depth was needed for each subject. I personally would have preferred a video of one of the instructors describing what the objectives at the start of each topic and explain more in detail some of the medical aspects.

I have 2 more assignments to do, they are very interesting. What I have learnt over the last few months has been fascinating. The human body is truly amazing. I guess it’s excited some passion in me to actually go and learn even more about the subject matter. It’s interesting to know how far I have come in terms of the knowledge base as a Hijama practitioner. Looking  back at the course materials that were given on day 1 of the lectures, I can honestly say it all fits in now and I can better understand the content after studying the various topics over these few months. What once seemed so hard and complicated now has become so simple and easy... I can actually understand all the terms and concepts we covered at the start with a comprehensive understanding of its relation to what I will be doing with my patients... this is because of the constant self study you have to do on the course. This is something that I will continue to do even after I finish inshallah.

Now we come onto the really fun part, the Clinical training. This is where we get an opportunity to do Hijama on real patients at one of the full time Hijama clinics associated with the institute. This experience was just breathtaking. Nothing beats real life on the job training. This was the real deal.

I arrived at the centre and was met by the doctors who told me what the structure of the day was going to be, they explained what they were looking for and marking and what we would be assessed on so in my mind I knew what I had to do to reach the standard required. Initially the doctors went and demonstrated what they were doing, talking through how and why they were doing it so I could see and try to understand. I then I began assisting and eventually I had a chance to take over some of the sessions while the doctors looked on. It was amazing to have this experience and be comforted with advice and guidance from experts with years of experience.

I had treated some family and friends before, but I guess you don’t really know how you do unless you compare yourself with the professionals. My first couple of patients were fine, no issues at all but I did notice that my technique was improving as I was being fine tuned by the doctors and through my own observations on the way they were working. This really gave me the knowledge and encouragement to proceed with confidence.  Within my first few days I had gained so much knowledge and experience seeing some really complicated and some not so complicated cases I started to understand how and why the doctor was working in the way he was and why he was treating patients in different ways depending on their case histories, blood pressure and other important factors. I had a eureka moment and thought to myself,  Yes! Voila!  I actually can do this!

Even on the practical side doing the Hijama, as time went on I noticed that I was doing much better, the cups were actually filling up properly (not that the amount of blood in a cup is a good indicator for a successful Hijama treatment) but the bottom line was that my cuts and the amount of blood coming into the cups was very very similarly to the doctors...so I knew I must be doing something right. I was allowed to practise myself and have almost completed my 20 hours ...I’m planning to go next week and finish it so that I can actually do my final stage of case studies. For me on a personal note the clinical experience is what it is all about, this is where you put what you learnt into practice and integrate all the aspects of learning together...I found it awesome!!

Another 2 months to go inshallah and hopefully get the Diploma ...I will write some further updates inshallah. I do feel sad and happy at the same time. Happy to see what I have accomplished and sad that its coming to an end. Although we are in the final stages we will soon have the ability to join the ICAHT membership in which we will stay in touch and continue our self directed learning to progress further. It is comforting to know that I have build relationships with the doctors, students and teachers and as an ICAHT member will always have access to them to refer back to, discuss and take guidance from in my new path as qualified Hijama practitioner.

I would like to say that ICAHT has delivered on what it set out to deliver. Despite not even completing the course I am already telling people to do the course in Jan 2014. At the start of the course the docors said that they wanted to create health professionals that could carry this practice of Hijama forward in the most educated, integrated and professional way and that it was quality and not quantity that they were looking for. They have created a professional framework that we must practice under with guidelines and standards of practice, they have provided the most detailed knowledge base to ensure that we as practitioners know what we are talking about in both the religious and scientific realms and have provided us with the confidence and practical experience to proceed further in the most professional way. I hope and pray that Allah makes me of the quality that they set out to create and that I can take this practice forward to help many more people in the future inshallah. I’m not on commission if you were wondering Lol.

Take care and my salaams 




FEATURED ORGANISATION:
ICAHT (Institute of Clinically Applied Hijama Therapy)

LOCATION
England
United Kingdom

CONTACT DETAILS:
Tel: +44 (0)7533 446 373

web: http://www.icaht.co.uk

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Our thanks to Br Arif Malik from England for sharing the above post. If you have any questions or want to leave some feedback on their training, then please do so via a comment* below.

If you are a hijama therapist or patient and are happy to share your knowledge or experience via a guest blog-post like the one above, please send me an email to: hijama.mail@gmail.com.

*Comments are moderated to prevent spamming so may take some time to appear
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